Control
by imperial queen
Summary: Uldred is dead, and all but two mages who fought him died as well. Left in the Harrowing Chamber are Daylen Amell and Neria Surana, two mages who've not spoken to each other before. Now they contemplate the big question: What do we do now?


**This was inspired by one of Arisnoe de Blassenville's plot mabaris, number 5: The mage PC never goes to Ostagar. Escapes imprisonment and takes part in in Uldred's uprising, which succeeds. Uldred is put down, and the PC takes command of the Tower. The mages fight for freedom against the Chantry.I have no plans to continue it at the moment. Please review!  
**

**I do not own Dragon Age. **

The fight had been hard, and all who had gone to confront Uldred had died, except for Daylen Amell and a little elf...a prodigy in the Circle with huge amounts of power. An elf who had escaped imprisonment and managed to help them put down a desperate man, driven to depravity by the Chantry and the templars. An elf fond of ranting. There was little else she had done since Uldred had been defeated.

"That stupid, worthless, foolish, idotic, brainless..." he listened as the elf continued with her rant about the recently-deceased Uldred. He tuned out most of it, the elf's rants were common knowledge in the Circle and hadn't particularly endeared her to anyone, except Jowan. Sometimes, though, these tirades could be amusing, if only because the little elf worked herself into such a state that half the time she burst into tears upon the completion of the rant. Daylen decided that he needed to stop her soon, before she became...unreasonable. It would be impossible to reason with a crying, angry woman. And then there was the fact that if he tried to comfort her, and got it wrong, she could very easily fry him. "Of all the imbecilic actions he could have taken, he chose blood magic! It's wrong and it shows that he was the biggest piece of -"

"Sit. Down." He cut the little elf off, watching her surprise as she was interrupted, probably for the first time ever. "We need to decide what we're going to do. The problem of Uldred is gone, little elf, and we have bigger concerns now."

"What?" the little elf was confused, but sat on the cold stone floor of the Harrowing Chamber anyway. Sighing, Daylen wished that she was as intelligent as she was powerful. Or at least more aware of the political implications of what had happened. "Little elf, Uldred is dead, mourn him – or not – later. What do you think we should do now that we've dealt with him? Let the templars slaughter every mage in the Ferelden Circle?"

"Why would they do that?" Daylen gestured to the deceased abomination behind them. The elf's eyes widened a little, "But we aren't blood mages. They can't invoke the Right of Annulment." She was firm in her belief. A pity it was wrong.

Daylen looked at her and said, very quietly, "They cannot tell who is and isn't a blood mage, little elf. All they know is that Uldred decided to become a maleficar and may well have corrupted the entire Circle. It is easy for a templar to say 'Blood mage' and frighten the mundanes into believing them. The fear of a maleficar is one the Chantry and the templars know how to manipulate."

"Uldred went bonkers. He was insane. He lost his mind, went off his rocker and lost his marbles all at the same time -" she was about to go into another rant, but Daylen decided to interrupt so that they could accomplish something with this discussion. "No. He was desperate, not insane. Desperate to help save his home from the Blight, desperate to stop the Chantry from causing the destruction of his home, desperate to end the oppression of mages. He was not insane, he was desperate and desperate men take drastic measures," he interrupted the elf, who stared at him. She opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it and closed her mouth again.

The elf got up and walked to Uldred's charred remains. She looked at them for a long time before turning to face him. "Human, Uldred _was_ bonkers. Any mage who turns to blood magic is. There are short-term benefits, yes, but long-term gain? No. This is what blood magic gets you."

"Then you agree with the oppression of mages? What the templars do? The pressure, the fear of ourselves, of each other, of the templars? Mages have as much right to exist as any other person."

"But...look at what happens in Tevinter. Every mage there uses blood magic. Just because they want power. Why can't people be happy with the power that they're given?"

Daylen chuckled, "Little elf, you have an extraordinary amount of power. Others, like Uldred, or me or even the First Enchanter, don't have that much power. If we want to end this oppression without using blood magic, we need to take every opportunity we can get."

"But we can't become like Tevinter. They're even more bonkers than Uldred was."

"_Magic exists to serve man, and never to rule over him_. There is a balance between Tevinter's rampant blood magic and the oppression the Chantry offers us, little elf. We need to find that balance. Then we need the support of the ruler of Ferelden, whoever that is."

"What do you suggest we do, human? Kick the templars out?" Not a bad idea actually. Daylen started pacing as he thought about the dilemma. The templars had proven themselves to be worthless in a fight with an abomination. They hid, waiting for reinforcements because they were too scared to fight their way to the Harrowing Chamber, because for all their bluster and assurances, the templars acted no differently than normal soldiers would have done. However, to kick the templars out of the Circle, it was also necessary to kick them out of Fereldan. Amell forced himself to slow down. He insisted that they take smaller steps. Immediate problems now, wishes for the future later.

"Little elf, although I suggest we aim for the...removal...of templars from Ferelden in the long run, to prevent the Chantry being too interfering, it would perhaps be better to allow the templars to remain for now. It is of the utmost importance, though, that the mages remain in control of the tower." Amell wasn't entirely sure of how they were supposed to both stay in control and stop other mages from trying to return the templars to power. Some of the loyalists would be unhappy with the mages having control. "Lyrium," the little elf said, "the Chantry gets the templars addicted to lyrium. Control the tower, control the lyrium, control the templars. Simple." Amell looked at the elf. He was genuinely surprised. She rolled her eyes at him and grinned. "Little elf, that is...an excellent idea."

"Stop calling me 'little elf'. I was hoping that you'd use the brain that you seem to possess and ask me what my name is, but no, you're just like every other patronising, stupid human who talks to me as if I were a child. I am a Harrowed mage, yet people continue to treat me as if I am a newly-arrived apprentice.

"My name is Neria Surana. I am not 'little elf' or 'elfkins' or any other stupid nickname that you can come up with, human. I am not your pet to be called stupid names to make me fell better, I am a sentient being who resents being called anything other than my name. I would appreciate it if people started using it." Amell looked at her in surprise. He hadn't realised it irritated her so much. "And yes, I know it's an excellent idea. It's one of my ideas. If you're intent on the folly of keeping control of this tower while templars are still here, you may as well try to use their weakness against them."

"I apologise for calling you a name you dislike, Neria. I think I should introduce myself. I am Daylen Amell. It is an honour to make the acquaintance of the most powerful mage in the Cicle." He offered her his hand, and she took the opportunity gladly.

"Daylen, I apologise for calling you human, and the introduction is all very nice, but we have slightly bigger fish to fry. Like the bunch of templars downstairs. And the mages that may turn against us because we want to be free."

* * *

In Val Royeaux the Divine worried over the news that the Ferelden Circle had had an incident with a blood mage turned abomination that had been dealt with by the mages, who were now in control of the Circle. She wondered about sending more templars to deal with the issue, but was advised to wait. "Ferelden will almost certainly fall to the Blight. It is not worth wasting templars on a Circle in a doomed country." So the Divine waited to see if Ferelden would succumb to the Blight.


End file.
